A Boston City Councilor who was the first ‘former illegal alien’ to serve in the position has been arrested by federal authorities on corruption charges just days after she voted to reaffirm Beantown’s ‘sanctuary city’ status.
Tania Fernandes Anderson, 45, was taken into custody by federal agents and charged with five counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud and one count of aiding and abetting theft concerning a program receiving federal funds.
Fernandes Anderson, an African Muslim who illegally immigrated to the U.S. from Cape Verde before becoming a U.S. citizen in 2019, is serving in her second term as a city councilor.
She has been caught up in a number of scandals and ethics violations during her tenure, including hiring her sister and son as city council staffers and quickly giving them substantial pay raises, failing to report nearly $33,000 of campaign contributions, and failing to recite the oath of office during the inaugural meeting of the 2024 council term.
This radical leftist and former illegal alien Boston City Council member Tania Fernandes Anderson has been arrested by the FBI
— Phil Holloway ✈️ (@PhilHollowayEsq) December 6, 2024
She's facing wire fraud and theft
She hired relatives to work at city hall and then jacked up their salaries
Politics is a grift for the left pic.twitter.com/unnmI3vnF3
“A six-count federal indictment alleges that Fernandes Anderson, 45, hired the relative in December 2022, then gave her a $13,000 bonus months later with a caveat: She had to funnel more than half of it back to the councilor,” the Boston Globe reports.
“At around 4 p.m. on a Friday afternoon in June 2023, the pair met in a bathroom at City Hall, where Fernandes Anderson took the $7,000 cash from the staffer and stuffed it in her pocket, prosecutors allege. Fernandes Anderson received a one-word text from her relative saying, ‘Bathroom,’ and replied, ‘Ready,’ before meeting to collect the cash, according to the indictment.”
Boston's First 'Former Illegal Alien' Councilwoman Arrested by Feds – 2 Days After Voting to Reaffirm City's Sanctuary Statuspic.twitter.com/kAzxPHpIIv
— Border Hawk (@BorderHawkNews) December 6, 2024
U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy laid out the case against Anderson during a press conference on Friday.
“These six felony charges stem from an alleged kickback scheme that she orchestrated to obtain several thousand dollars in taxpayer money in exchange for a bribe she paid to a staffer who she gave a very large bonus,” Levy said.
Investigators say Fernandes Anderson was facing financial difficulties, some of which stemmed from a $5,000 fine she was ordered to pay by the state ethics commission for previously hiring her relatives.
Authorities allege Fernandes Anderson then cooked up a scheme to hire another relative – while denying the person was a family member – in order to execute the kickback to help pay the outstanding fine.
She pled not guilty to all six charges and vows she is “not thinking about stepping down.”
BREAKING: @BOSCityCouncil member Tania Fernandes Anderson (D) was just arrested by the FBI for operating an alleged kickback scheme netting her thousands in stolen taxpayer dollars.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 6, 2024
She faces 5 federal counts of wire fraud and one federal count of theft concerning programs… https://t.co/vaIZA0F2ab pic.twitter.com/YbkckrmOyE
On Wednesday, Fernandes Anderson joined fellow city councilors – all of 13 of whom are Democrats – in voting unanimously to reaffirm Boston’s status as a ‘sanctuary city’ for illegal aliens.
Fernandes Anderson is reportedly married to Tanzerious Anderson, a convicted murderer who is serving life without the possibility of parole for killing a Lebanese immigrant.